Written by The Masters of the Universe fandom is the best fan community in the world. We are passionate and we are loyal. But our strength has always been in our numbers and that strength has been tested lately when a good portion of those numbers have been cut out entirely from participating in the collecting side of this fandom.
The core of the Masters of the Universe fandom has always been its toys. This brand was birthed from it. Last month Mattel revealed they were having problems shipping those toys internationally. (That report can be found HERE).
And now, after Mattel Creations limited collectors in certain countries from participating in purchasing their Exclusive Masters of the Universe: Origins Rokkon figure, it took a turn for the worse. All countries now (except the United States) are currently excluded from purchasing their Exclusive Masterverse New Eternia Snout Spout figure that goes on sale next week.
Per the Mattel Creations website:
One of our terrific community members in Canada, TALLUS76 PHOTOGRAPHY on Twitter, reached out to Mattel Creations today for clarification and this was their response.
Mattel has indicated that they are sorry for the inconvenience, they are actively working on the issue and they will update their website as soon as they have resolved the issue. But will they resolve it in time?
All we can say is we hope so. There is still time for Mattel to resolve the issue prior to the Masterverse New Eternia Snout Spout going on sale this Tuesday March 12th at 9am PT.
If it doesn’t get resolved, then perhaps one of the most anticipated Masters of the Universe action figures of the year won’t be available to a large sum of the community it was intended for. And that would be an incredible shame.
Stay tuned. We’ll see you next time.
Well that’s crappy! I really hope that they sort this out š
This is a very poor look for Mattel. Why not delay the order date until all of this is sorted out?
What Mattel is pulling off doesn’t work at all. International shipping is suspended. This applies to all open orders. So also Eternia, King Grayskull, Rokkon. It will not be delivered. They haven’t been able to get shipping back for 5 weeks. That’s ridiculous for a global company like Mattel. And Snout Spout looks like it can only be ordered in the USA. This is how you destroy your own buyers. It’s unbelievable what’s going on at the moment.
@gizmo184 This is news to me that people are not receiving their Eternia sets. That is outrageous. Those are bought and paid for.
@caliban here in Canada not a single one of us has gotten Eternia yet – how many weeks has it been since US backers got theirs?
It startet February. 5 Weeks now.
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Yes, unfortunately it is like that. Mattel is not currently delivering any packages to Europe. Neither current orders like Rokkon nor old orders like Eternia. Nothing is being shipped at the moment. It is put off that the official release of Eternia is March 29th, 2024 and you should be patient. If it takes longer you will receive an email from March 29th.
This is what Creations Support wrote to me. So at the moment no packages are going to Europe.
Too bad : I already ordered several time and it was excellent service. Why did they cancel this… Masterverse figs are not easy to find in Europe at a decent price…
Rokkon hasn’t shipped yet to the international countries they said it could? Then why did Mattel take those orders? I wonder if that is the reason why Mattel is not doing the same thing for Snout Spout.
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@asterstar he was technically a pre-order. They had some in stock and a handful of us got lucky.
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Although with what’s going on with Eternia it seems likely that Mattel is have trouble with their European shipping partners or some customs regulations are causing the problems.Ā
A customs problem would be a per country problem. You have a customs problem with Mexico you no longer can ship to Mexico. It wouldn’t stop you from shipping to every other country in the world.
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@caliban true, and I’ll admit I don’t know much about how the EU works, but I know some countries in Europe have stricter toy safety regulations than the US does. And Eternia is the first Origins toy with projectiles and that could be part of the problem. But that won’t explain Snout Spout or Rokkon.
Even toys that are designated for adults can’t have projectiles?
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@caliban I’m in Ireland, there are plenty of toys with projectiles.
@caliban @daavid
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I encourage you to read the the TFwiki article I linked to earlier.Ā
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I will say, it’s not just about the projectiles but their size and the force.
@smitty-81 admittedly I haven’t actually used the Eternia ones yet, but I’ve seen and used tonnes of different size and force projectiles in toys over here. I just don’t feel like that could be the issue having had toys in my houses for years including my kids toys.Ā
I think you’re probably closer with the theory about problems with their shipping partner that they can’t disclose.Ā
@daavid the regulations change, but the shipping partner problems do seem likely to me as well. It could also be a combination of things.Ā
I hate the people in the US who says who cares I’m getting mine. If you want more shows and movies the fans need to grow not shrink.
There’s no excuse for the stress this shit causes people but Mattel will probably go the Rokkon route again and open it up Tuesday to other countries.Ā
So what is the reason for no international shipping?
@brasco yeah, I’d love to know that too. There are small family run businesses all over the world who can manage international shipping. Why a player the size of Mattel is struggling is simply bananas.
I like to know it, too. Mattel has not officially commented on this. International packages cannot currently be sent. We’re working on it. There is nothing more official. However, this has been going on for 5 weeks now.
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@brasco that’s the real question. For all we know it’s the shipping service Mattel uses that won’t or can’t operate outside the US.
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Business shipping is a bit more complex than just giving the packages to FedEx or DHL and there’s rules and registrations that change and can be different from country to country, even within the EU.
@smitty-81 I think whatever the reason is, Mattels lack of communication reflects horrendously on them as a company.Ā
If the reason is related to the shipping company they use, its easy for them to say that. If its out of their hands for some reason, explain that to us, we’ll understand, we’re grown ups. We’ll all say,Ā ‘oh, that’s shit, but thanks for putting us in the picture. ‘
The fact that we’re even on here having to speculate is the real issue I would have with the situation.Ā
@daavid that’s true, but there’s also the possibility that their deal with their shipping partners prohibits them from discussing it outside of what ever negotiations are going on.Ā
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Business is complicated and international business even more so.
@smitty-81 perhaps you’re right.
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… I’m starting to think I should use it as avatar by now considering that this seems to be my default reaction to Mattel news these days šĀ
Mattel’s lack of communication with their customers is unacceptable in this day and age of social media, especially when there are major problems. Look at Hasbro in comparison – for G.I Joe Classified, they host fan streams once every month in which they provide updates and address concerns. MOTU fans can only dream of seeing such a modicum of effort as a reward for our decades-long loyalty.
I seem to recall did do an online Q&A session some time back.
Unfortunately they bungled that one for customers in Europe as well. North America and Europe change their clocks at different times (second Sunday in March & first Sunday in November vs last Sunday in March & last Sunday in October) and the session fell in one of the periods between changeovers with whoever at Mattel was in charge of advertising it failing to realise this so the advertised times for European countries were all out by an hour and people arrived only to find it had already happened.
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Hell yes
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I wonder if the attacks on ships on the Red Sea have anything to do with it. Rates have spiked like crazy
This article from TFwiki.net may prove enlightening.Ā
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https://tfwiki.net/wiki/For_safety_reasons
Thanks! Someone shared this exact wiki with me yesterday but I still appreciate it very much! Now I know the terminology. š
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https://twitter.com/ForEternia_com/status/1767577971114557710?t=uFWotDT4tDmI6BBtaHzDXw&s=19
So Mattel changed their listing 15 minutes before? I’m sorry but what a bunch of asshats. There is no way Mattel didn’t have that information beforehand and instead they made people sweat it out.
Why is Canada off the list now? Wasn’t Canada on the list for Rokkon?
@asterstar it was. It makes no sense.
It looks like Mattel Creations is changing around their shipping policies and rates.
https://creations.mattel.com/pages/shipping-rates-policy